The SIGGRAPH 2009 competition challenged participants to "choose a specific animal, or a specific animal's sense, and develop a system that will enable a person to experience the physical or social world as that animal does."

In An Ant's Life, the players experience the world as members of an ant colony, from hatching through successive life phases in and around the nest.

The game's interface maps the ant's dominant senses, namely smell, taste and touch, to a first-person interactive audiovisual display, conveying a localized and qualitative perception of the environment. Textures and colors characterize the tactile and chemical properties of world elements such as terrain, rocks, bits of food and other ants.

The game takes place in a fully accessible and interactive simulation of the colony and its environment, populated by other ants and critters. In order to progress in the game, the player must ensure her immediate well-being, interact with her sister ants, and fulfill the tasks that characterize the roles she undertakes as her life develops.